sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

[trixietrack]

I have this weird theory that people who have a creative and sensitive side, (right brain vs left) have more of a tendency to abuse alcohol and drugs.

Seems like people who are sensitive, are also very vulnerable and easily upset. They also seem to be dreamers and have vivd imaginations and love to surround themselves with beauty. People who are sensitive and creative also tend to enjoy escaping reality, or responsibilities. they can also have melancholic tendencies.
any comments on this one?

[eustacia]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

The biographies of contemporary writers and artists bears out what you hypothesize, Trixietrack. I don't know if it is a structural right brain/left brain thing or a medley of the circumstances that led the person to create along with an unusual way of synthesizing or using neurotransmitters. My guess would be that all three of these things are somehow involved.

E

[imatree]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

I agree with your theories Trixie. But I wonder, is the 'greater tendency to abuse drugs and alcohol' a result of the person's sensitive nature, or a corresponding trait?

[Bella]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

you have decribed me perfectly. Bella xx

[ScoobyDoo]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

I will add that I think sensitive types tend to self blame (introvert) and take on responsibilities for things that may not be their fault. Know what I mean?

Scooba

[satori]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

Dont know - I wouldn't describe myself as artistic or creative - I am trained as a scientist.
And I could abuse alcohol pretty well!
But I guess i'm more introvert than extrovert

Satori

xxx

[tawnyfrog]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

satori;131293 wrote: I wouldn't describe myself as artistic or creative -

Satori - you lie through your teeth.

[dilayne]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

Trixie, yes, I would agree and so would Carl Jung and other depth psychologist....some would say that artist tend to spend more time in those 'transitional spaces' which contain the tension between the opposites...such as the tension b numb it etween society and undiscovered possibilities..for example. Creation comes out of that place and it can be a difficult state to maintain..the best way that I've heard it described and experienced it myself is containing the tension...whenever I'm really pushed to the limits of my own creativity, I really feel that tension..it it chaotic, confusing at times, scary, and painful...and yes, the tendency to want to 'relax' that 'tension' probably has lead to alcohol and drug abuse. I also agree that creative people are more sensitive...they have to be in order to percieve and communicate the undertones, the mentaphors, the relationships...which opens them up to feeling EVERYTHING else more intensly. Unfortunately, they, like teachers are NEVER paid enough for their suffering!!! LOL!

[dilayne]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

correction...."such as the tension between society and undiscovered possibilities...for example."....(don't know how the 'b numb' got stuck there..hee, hee, fraudian slip?)

[dilayne]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

Satori, I would consider scientist among our most creative..along with mathemeticians.

[dilayne]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

problem with scientist and creatitivity..is they many of them tend to 'think' too much instead of letting the solutions rise up through them...it's my problem as well as a visual artist....my progress is slow because I try to 'think' it out instead of just being a vehicle for creative energy...I'm working on it though. ;0)

[southernbelle47]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

MY HUBBY'S MAIN GRIPE ABOUT ME IS
"YOU'RE TOO SENSITIVE".
Sorry about the caps...it got stuck! LOL

[Guest]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

Trixie reading your post, Hemmingway popped into mind. I am a very creative person and sensitiveI get hurt easily. But hide that well. Years of practice. I could not do anything technical if my life depended on it. give me some old junk furniture some paint. In a day I will make a room snap!My Daughter always says Mom you can make anything work. One day I will tell you all the story about my MRA, I found out my brain had a variant. That's what makes me unique I guess.
Smiles
Mar

[satori]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

Sorry for delay - It is an interesting subject, - I guess in some ways scientists have to be creative, as in problem solving.
I can do that kind of creative - but that kind of problem solving is usually done using logical progression.
But it is not what I mean by creative.

Tawny - if you are referring to my recent poor attempts at poetry on the "once upon a time thread" as creative - It is not so much creative as a simplistic use of a fairly wide vocabulary according to simple "rules" to produce "poetry" any bright schoolkid could have produced!

For instance, I can draw reasonably accurately if I am looking at a subject. Purely by copying what I can see in front of me.
But - I had a school friend who was a fabulously creative artist. One day we were just chatting and talking about music. Jimi hendrix came up in conversation.
As we were talking - she started doodling.
I could not see what the heck it was at first - but what she was doing was drawing the most amazing likeness of Hendrix's face I had ever seen entirely from memory - but doing it by sketching the shadows that would have been there if his face had been lit obliquely from above. The face emerged from the "spaces" between what she was drawing.
She went on to be an excellent surgeon by the way.

That is creative - she "saw" the world in a different way from me.

Another example - I can play guitar reasonably well - but usually only by "learning" the music of others - almost mechanically copying the notes and nuances.
My own attempts at writing music are spectacularly mediocre

Rambling a bit - but you see what I mean?

Satori

xxx

[hidden_gem]

sensitive artistic types and alcohol abuse

Just an extra along what Dilayne mentioned about mathematicians being considered creative - if you read "The Mozart Effect" and other writings about music, it is considered that music and mathematics are very closely linked.

Yes, I know Satori, that you've said you're not creative in the musical sense - but the point is that music and mathematics can occupy similar parts in the brain (and you may think that the fact you're not musically creative negates this - ok, I don't have an answer for that!)

Creativity exists in mathematics. We always think of creativity as being free-flowing and artistic. But it's really about allowing the brain to think outside normal parameters.

Mathematicians DO think outside normal parameters. Otherwise how would they generate solutions (as you said)? I know, I know - Satori, you said that it's about your friend seeing the world differently from you. But you probably do see the world differently to most. I think you are just as creative as your friend. And I think you see your friend's creativity as being more desirable, simply because it's different to yours. But yours is not any less valuable.

Gem x